Edgar Allan Poe Birthplace - Boston, MA
N 42° 21.147 W 071° 04.020
19T E 329760 N 4690978
This historical marker honors Edgar Allan Poe, the American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, who was born nearby in Boston, Massachusetts.
Waymark Code: WMHWZM
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 08/21/2013
Views: 7
The Boston Art Commission describes the memorial as follows:
"A bronze plaque bears a bas-relief portrait of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) and records that the poet and short story writer was born in Boston. Poe published his first book of poems here in Boston, as well as his last tale. The tablet also commemorates Poe’s best known poem, “The Raven,” with a bas relief of the bird adapted from an illustration made by the French artist Edouard Manet. The plaque was designed by the sculptor Robert Shure and unveiled in 1989."
This historical marker, for Edgar Allan Poe, is located on the south side of Boylston Street, just east of the intersection with Charles Street. It is situated on the side of a building that houses Boloco Inspired Burritos. The plaque reads:
EDGAR ALLAN POE
POET * STORYWRITER * CRITIC
BORN ON CARVER STREET JANUARY 19, 1809,
TO DAVID AND ELIZABETH (ELIZA) POE,
ACTORS AT THE BOSTON THEATRE.
IN 1827 PUBLISHED HIS FIRST BOOK,
TAMERLANE AND OTHER POEMS,
AT A SHOP ON THE CORNER OF WASHINGTON
AND STATE STREETS AND ENLISTED IN THE
U.S. ARMY AT FORT INDEPENDENCE,
BOSTON HARBOR. LECTURED IN BOSTON
OCTOBER 16, 1845. PUBLISHED ‘LANDOR’S COTTAGE’
HIS LAST TALE, IN BOSTON’S
FLAG OF OUR UNION, JUNE 9, 1849.
DIED AT BALTIMORE OCTOBER 7, 1849.
EDGAR ALLAN POE MEMORIAL COMMITTEE
JANUARY 19, 1989
The Poe Museum has this to say about the famous author:
"The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Raven,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry."